Subscribe to Spaceflight Now Plus for access to our extensive video collections!How do I sign up?Video archiveIntroduction to ATVPreview the maiden voyage of European's first Automated Transfer Vehicle, named Jules Verne. The craft will deliver cargo to the International Space Station.
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Europe's Jules Verne spaceship glided into port at the international space station Thursday, delivering more than 10,000 pounds of supplies to the complex and completing nearly a month of testing to prove the craft's revolutionary navigation system worked.

Credit: ESA

Moving at a snail's pace, the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle
docked to the station's Zvezda service module at 1445 GMT (10:45 a.m. EDT)
after a highly choreographed approach lasting more than four hours. Hooks
and latches began engaging about a few minutes later to permanently bring
the station and space transporter together.

Such commands were off limits once the ATV moved within three feet of the
complex because a late abort could cause more harm than good.

"The parameters are nominal, waiting for contact."

"We have contact," Malenchenko said.

Officials at the ATV control center in Toulouse, France, erupted in
applause when the docking was announced.

Jules Verne automatically flew through various waypoints using data from a
relative GPS navigation system and four laser devices.

The ship switched from GPS to optical data at about 1333 GMT (9:33 a.m.
EDT) as Jules Verne flew in formation about 817 feet behind the station.

The advanced instruments were heavily tested through two demonstration
days Saturday and Monday to ensure they were ready to close in on the
complex.

Jules Verne reached a holding point 62 feet behind the station at 1415 GMT
(10:15 a.m. EDT), where it held for about 20 minutes as the craft aligned
its docking probe with the corresponding receiving port on the back end of
Zvezda.

After resuming its approach, Jules Verne arrived at a location 36 feet
from the station at 1438 GMT (10:38 a.m. EDT). Ground controllers at the
ATV control center issued a "go" for docking before the ship began its
final rendezvous.

With its docking probe extended, the bus-sized spacecraft stretches 34
feet in length and 15 feet in diameter at its widest point.

The ship's pressurized section ferried more than 2,500 pounds of dry cargo
to the station, including 1,100 pounds of food, 300 pounds of spare parts
for the newly-delivered Columbus module, and storage support hardware for
the Russian segment. The Automated Transfer Vehicle also carried about 176
pounds of fresh clothing, according to the European Space Agency.

The station's three-person crew - commander Peggy Whitson and flight
engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Garrett Reisman - will open up the
31-inch-wide pathway leading to Jules Verne early Friday morning. They
will install atmospheric scrubbers to cleanse the air inside the module
before being permitted to fully enter the craft Saturday.

Station residents will manually unload the supplies from Jules Verne's
pressurized logistics carrier. The gear will be replaced with waste
material throughout its four-month stay at the orbiting laboratory.

"We'll be using it a bit like the cupboard," said John Ellwood, ESA ATV
project manager.

Jules Verne also trucked nearly 600 pounds of water and 46 pounds of
oxygen to the station. The water will be used for drinking, cleaning and
food rehydration, while the oxygen will be moved into the outpost's air
supply beginning April 14.

The crew will hook up the water lines and must manually turn valves to
transfer the oxygen.

Once fresh water is pumped inside the station, the crew can transfer
liquid waste back into the ATV's water tanks.

About 1,900 pounds of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants housed
inside Jules Verne's refueling tanks will also flow into Zvezda. The fuel
will be used for the station's primary propulsion system on the Russian
segment of the complex.

The refueling system will be checked out April 18 before propellant will
begin running into Zvezda's propulsion system

Jules Verne's flight to the station exhausted more than half of its own
12,900-pound fuel supply, leaving about 5,000 pounds of propellant to
raise the station's altitude, steer the complex clear of orbital debris,
and provide attitude control when the outpost's gyroscopes are down. The
ATV must also keep a fuel reserve for the ship's suicidal de-orbit burn at
the end of the mission.

Engineers on the ground will control the refueling and re-boost operations.

Jules Verne shepherded a total of approximately 10,100 pounds of supplies
for the station, including dry cargo and fluids.

The ATV is designed to carry more than 16,000 pounds of logistics, three
times more payload mass than Russia's workhorse Progress spacecraft, which
has averaged nearly four missions per year since 2001.

Officials opted to pack Jules Verne with less than a full load because of
the nearly month-long voyage to the station, which included a complicated
series of tests that will not be required on future ATV missions.

Future ATV trips to the station will likely last about eight days,
according to ESA officials.

The ATV program has cost ten ESA member states $1.9 billion since 1995,
including the craft's design, development and construction. The cost
number also covers the program's ground segment.

France led the program's development, providing nearly 47 percent of the
total contributions to the ATV. Germany and Italy supplied 24 percent and
13 percent, respectively, and seven other ESA member states had
contributions in the single digits.

Led by the industrial giant European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the
ATV contractor team included thousands of engineers and technicians across
Europe. Russia provided the docking probe and refueling system.

Four more ATV's are in the pipeline. Scheduled for launch at the end of
2009 or early 2010, the next spacecraft is already under construction.
Subsequent ATV's are manifested for launch in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The ATV's cargo capacity will be especially needed after the space
shuttle's retirement in 2010. The shuttle currently carries most of the
station's internal and external hardware to orbit.

"It is a major contribution to the program, probably more significantly
post-2010 when the shuttle is no longer available for us to much of the
logistics work it does," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station
program manager.

Jules Verne's mission is tentatively set to end Aug. 7 with an undocking
from the space station. Two engine firings will slow the craft's speed
enough to drop into the atmosphere, destroying the craft and up to 14,000
pounds of the station's trash over the South Pacific.

"That fiery end of the ATV mission really concludes the operations of
Jules Verne," Chesson said.

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